And just like that, the summer is ending. You pack up your cabin. You find things you haven't worn even once, folding clothes as you prepare to leave this amazing place you have called home for the past two months. You turn in your camp keys. You make sure you got your favorite water bottle from the kitchen. You remember your rain jacket is still laying in the dining hall and remind yourself to go pick it up.
The part you have been dreading is next. You need to say goodbye to this crazy, dysfunctional family that God has created for you in this one of a kind summer. People you have known for years. People you met a short two months ago. But now, in these final moments, you know that this is your family. And you break down because you know in your heart that nothing is going to compare to these last two months. Whether it is your first summer or your fifth summer.
Each year is different.
Each year is amazing.
Each year challenges you.
Each year breaks your heart a little bit more when you say goodbye.
You will take these memories with you for the rest of your life. I know this because I have heard past counselors and directors tell me story after story of "When I was on staff, we did..." I hope I never lose that. These are the stories that you will retell when you go back to school or back to your "real job." These people, the outsiders, will not understand your stories or why you think it is so hilarious that you had a chipmunk in your cabin at 11 p.m. But you do. Because you lived it. And laughed about it with your fellow staff for hours.
Those first days after you leave camp will be the hardest. Trust me. I keep thinking that the more times I do this, the easier it will get. Turns out, I was wrong. It gets harder to drive out through those gates every year. In those first days, you will find comfort in your memories. Play them over in your head. Talk about them. Laugh about them. Look at those selfies you took on your phone the day that you and your fellow staff members decided to go on that adventure that didn't go as planned. Remember how you found that Pokemon by sprinting up the hill because you knew it was a rare one. FaceTime your best friend on staff. Make plans to see some people in the fall. Post throwback Thursday and flashback Friday photos because you can. Relive those moments with each other.
Right now, it may not feel like your heart will ever be full again. Leaving camp is like a bad break up. You know it needs to end but you'll never truly be ready when it actually happens. You know you would go back to it in a heartbeat if you were given the chance. It gets easier, I promise. Before you know it, you will be together again for staff reunion. Before you know it, you will interviewing to come back next summer. You will be back, whether it is for the summer or to volunteer because you can never truly stay away. You will make more memories. You will make more friends. You will have your heart broken one more time when the summer once again comes to an end.
Because it always does.
But...
You always have camp.
The gates are always open.
This is home.